342 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TKAVEL 



are massed together to form a labyrinthine archipelago 

 of over thirty islands, beset with reefs and shoals. 

 These are evidently of much more recent origin, the 

 highest point of Nuhu Eoa attaining an altitude of 200 

 feet only, and being formed of coralline limestone and 

 shells. Ke Dulan is celebrated for its harbour, which 

 was visited by the Challenger in 1874. Here, at Tual, 

 resides the Controleur and a small colony of Germans 

 who are engaged in the timber trade. The islands have 

 no season of drought such as is experienced by those 

 farther to the west, the ultimate links in the great 

 Sunda chain. The west monsoon brings a considerable 

 amount of rain, with stormy and unsettled weather, but 

 from April to October, when the easterly monsoon pre- 

 vails, the weather is settled and fine. The average rain- 

 fall is 102 inches. 



Captain Langen, who has resided for a considerable 

 time on the group, divides the natives into three classes 

 — the aborigines, the Papuans, and the immigrant Malay 

 people, who are of varied nationality. He describes the 

 true K^ natives as tall and strongly built, with well- 

 shaped but large noses and high cheek-bones, with black 

 and brown coloured beard, and long, wavy, but finely 

 curled black hair, mixed with several lighter or darker 

 shades of brown, reaching to the shoulder and projecting 

 all round the head. The skin is in colour midway 

 between the Papuan and Malay. True Papuans were at 

 one tune established in several places, but especially on 

 a small island which still bears the name of Pulo Papua ; 

 but constant warfare existed between the two races, and 

 the K6 people eventually succeeded in driving them out. 

 They had nevertheless intermarried for many generations, 

 and as a consequence a mixed semi-Papuan race is found 

 in all parts. 



